You’re part of the ninety-nine percent, you say. What of that? Your status isn’t fixed, and you are not stuck there. You’re free to work your way along the spectrum — as, indeed, most people do. You’re free to run clear up to the top percent — as, indeed, many people do. Your motivation and […]

She drove him six hours into a small mining town in eastern Nevada, near the Utah border. During the drive he told her what had happened. She listened intently but did not speak. A green-colored half moon hung low in the sky, the horizon beneath it a band of xanthic light which glowed like something […]

The American Dream is a dream of aspiration. It is a story of striving. But it is more: It is a dream of breaking away from the pack. The American Dream is the freedom of each person, regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation, color, class or creed, free to pursue her or his own life […]

You disparage wealth who have never known poverty. You disparage cleanliness and health from a tower of health and cleanliness. Let me tell you something: Poverty which is neither sin nor vice is also neither noble nor good. Poverty is hardship. Poverty is sickness. Poverty is misery. Poverty is death. The words well, weal, and […]

On a lovely spring day in Southern California,2009, a young man with blue-black hair and dark skin arrived late and winded at the starting area of a much-anticipated track race. A small breeze blew down from the north and a whisper of lilac laced the currents. The young man was of Navajo stock. He had […]

______________ On a lovely spring day in Southern California, 2009, a young man with blue-black hair and dark skin arrived late and winded at the starting area of a much-anticipated track race. A small breeze blew down from the north and a whisper of lilac laced the currents. The young man was of Navajo […]

Summer dies. The long days wane away. The heat in the sky melts like lead to liquid pools. The hills beyond are baked as white as clay. Now creep in the gentle autumn ghouls Trailing their silken shawls of a Lethe- an mist. Shadows warp, gourds enlarge. And now what is always there but not […]

Here’s how you create a setting: One hour before nightfall, on a pink-and-blue evening in the third week of August, 2011 … Here’s how you create a character: a solitary man traveling on foot … Here’s how you introduce a situation: entered the small, tree-shadowed town of Clifton — an isolated village about which many […]

Most people are boring. Not you. Why? Because you broke away from the pack a long time ago. You’re a different breed — a dog of a different color. You cultivated the black art of individuality, learned the art of personality. You became brilliant. People argue about your modesty. She does things differently, they say, […]

The Sudsbuster He was one of the mellow, the soft-spoken, the tawny-haired — one who preferred to be alone. His name was Mark, a dishwasher at age 45. He was a drifter, a loner. He valued his freedom above all. Dishwashing jobs he could always find. Our paths crossed and re-crossed at the Café Claire, where […]

You can spot her from a mile away, the smartest one in the bar – or, if not quite from a mile, nonetheless from very far. She doesn’t necessarily think of herself as smart. Still, her brain is carefully crafted – self-crafted and stylized – like a work of art. Her eyes are alert and bright and lively. They twinkle. She’s […]

Answer this honestly: How often do you undermine yourself? Answer quickly: How guilty are you of self-sabotage? If you’re anything like most, the answer is approximately “a lot.” The following are five bullshit notions bartenders often hear that would kill the living beast in anyone: 1. You’re not smart enough Then educate yourself. As you […]

Chapter 1 Tournament night in a sweltering Las Vegas stadium, and the girl with the gap-toothed smile stood bleeding in her ballet slippers. The sodium lights of the arena lay upcast on the low-hanging sky above. There was an electrical charge in the air: a crackling undercurrent that came neither from the lights […]